Red
by the-notsoevil-queeen
Summary: A one-shot from the prompt "Please don't leave me." In the Underworld, a dark Regina, poisoned by Cora's magic, fights against Robin. Major character death. Trigger words death and blood.
_I had no idea she was so good with a sword._

The words repeated over and over in Robin's head, the only clear thought in his mind. Of course, she had been royalty even before she was queen, and all royals were trained to defend themselves, even princesses with magic in their blood.

She charged at him again and again, never letting up, swinging her sword with every ounce of strength she possessed, and Robin used his own to block every shot as quickly as he could. He wasn't trained in hand to hand combat the way he was with his bow and arrow, and all he could do was swing the sword around his own body to stop her from slicing him into pieces. Every one of her blows was backed by explosive rage and strings of words that never stopped flowing from her mouth. So much anger seeped from her, so much pain caused by Marian and then Zelena. Words fell from her lips almost absentmindedly, how he betrayed her, how he lied to her, and how _she hated him, she hated him, she hated him._

He called to her as he tried to catch his breath between hits, tried to remind her that this wasn't true, that he loved her with all of his heart, but it didn't matter. He was unsure if she couldn't hear him or if she simply didn't care. There was no getting through to her, not now. Not after Cora had sunk her claws into her, filling her soul with dark magic and even darker thoughts. He had watched as magic had spiralled around his true love, Cora whispering into Regina's ear; _He doesn't love you, no one loves you._

This wasn't his Regina. Everything about her told him so: her rigid posture, her raged breath that tore through her throat, the heavy heaving of her chest as she tried to hit him, but most of all her eyes. They had been filled with darkness and were solid black; no white, no warm brown that had stolen his heart the day he met her (so broken and constantly brimmed with tears), just black voids. This creature took over his Regina, and she terrified him more than anything he had ever seen.

He had no way of stopping this, if he fought against her he would hurt, or even kill, her. Not that he could fight her, she left no room for him to do anything other than defend himself. She moved faster than he ever could, her rage fuelling her every movement. There was only one way out of this.

She was going to kill him.

With one swift twist of her wrist she flung his sword from his hand, and before it could clang to the ground she plunged her blade through the middle of his chest, slicing right next to his heart. Air flew from his lungs, and he gasped as she pulled his body closer to hers, her hot breath washing over his face. Her empty eyes sparkled as a grin spread across her face, her brow still furrowed with her fury.

He focused on her face as white-hot pain shot through every vein in his body, trying to picture her the way she used to be. As he thought of her smile, and her laugh, and her warm brown eyes, something in her began to change. Her face fell, something close to confusion taking over her forced smile. The darkness in her eyes began to melt, falling from her in black tears, slowly revealing the chocolate colour he loved.

 _Thank god, at least I can see the real her before I die._

He cursed his thoughts, knowing that she'd blame herself for this. It wasn't her fault; she had been a puppet for her mother, playing out yet another cruel form of torture that her daughter would remember for the rest of her life. Still, he gazed at her, his vision darkening at the edges, and he focused on all the happiness he had found in her.

 _At least I can see her one more time._

:::

The first thing she saw were his eyes, so full of tears they looked like a storming ocean, glassed over as if he couldn't actually see her. He was so close to her, his face a few inches from her own, pulled close by her own hands clinging to the hilt of the sword embedded deep in his chest.

Something between a sob and a scream fell from her mouth. Every muscle in her body tensed. She was afraid to move, and she was desperate to remove the sword from him, though she knew she couldn't for risk of him bleeding out in a few minutes.

She wished she didn't know how this had happened, that her mind had blanked when Cora had taken over her, poisoning her with her deepest fears. But no, she remembered everything. Every blow, every word. She knew what she had done.

"Regina…" He choked out through the gurgling in the back of his throat. His head drooped towards hers, though she remained frozen, her mind racing for some way to stop this, to undo what she had done.

Life seeped from his body, covering her hands in slick blood so dark it looked black. It ran down her arms, trails of life that would forever stain her skin the way no other had. She wasn't used to blood, not this much at least, her kills had always been clean, magically removing a heart or snapping a neck. But this, this stained her in a way she feared she would never clean.

His skin was already losing its colour, his cheeks hollowing and sinking into his face. All that remained of him was his eyes, shining at her the way they always did, love and adoration glowing through the horror.

"Robin," she gasped, "I – oh god no – _what did I do_." She choked on the pain that welled in her throat, tears pouring from her eyes relentlessly, as he shushed her, slowly reaching up to stroke his thumb along her cheek.

"This wasn't…. you," he forced out, strangled by the liquid filling his throat. His knees gave out beneath him, and a groan escaped him as the shift in weight moved the sword into him further.

Finally she removed the sword in a puff of purple smoke and caught him as he fell onto her. Her magic couldn't help him; she knew it was too late now, had known it the moment she slid the blade between his ribs. She sat on her knees and pulled his upper body onto her lap, his moans of pain barely audible over her sobbing. He sighed as he stopped moving, and slowly closed his eyes.

"No, please no, Robin," she grabbed his chest and shook him, "Open your eyes, please." He gasped for air as she moved him, but his eyes remained closed.

"PLEASE," she screamed, "Just look at me Robin, look at me!" His eyes fluttered as she yelled, and he reached up to take her shaking hand in his.

"My love…" he breathed, looking at her through hooded eyes. He looked so tired, the last of his fight leaving him just so he could look at her.

"You can't leave me, you were my second chance!" She cried as her sobs wracked her body, her tears falling onto his face. "What am I going to tell Roland? You can't leave _us_." His breathing slowed as a small smile played across his face. He looked as if he was trying to speak through his eyes, to tell her how much he loved her, and how much he would always love her. He closed his eyes, the corners of his mouth falling as the final rush of air fell from his lips.

"NO!" She shook his body again as her stomach tightened, filling with hopelessness. For the second time in her life she held the empty body of her true love, her soul mate. Except this time, she had no one to blame but herself. It was her hands that had driven the sword through him, her hands that were now covered in red. As much as she wanted to blame Cora, she couldn't. Not this time. Magic may have controlled her, but it was her own darkness, her own hatred that had stolen her soul mate from her.

She looked at her hands through her watery eyes as they clung to Robin's lifeless body. She couldn't see her own skin, only the colour of his life that she had taken stuck to her skin. She had never hated the colour red more in her life.

Regina chocked and sobbed, dropping her head onto Robin's chest as she poured her sorrow onto him. Everything inside her deflated, her hope, her light, her dreams for their future, as if her own life was draining into the wet pavement beneath her. She wished she could push her life into his body, let him live while she died.

She didn't know how long she sat there, gasping for air that was never enough to fill her lungs. Or maybe it wasn't her lungs that were empty.


End file.
